After
PEOPLE.COM
December 14, 2019
Murder charges laid in Blue-Eyed Boyfriend Killer case: Cousins released
By Talia Sims
The trial of Tabitha Cousins, 17, has ended, with a jury unanimously deciding that Cousins is innocent of all charges in the hiking death of her former boyfriend, Princeton swimming champion Mark Forrester, 20. New evidence proved that Forrester’s friend Keegan Leach, 20, was more than likely the one who initiated the murder, using Cousins as a pawn to get Forrester into the woods.
“I had no idea he was such a bad guy,” a source close to Leach tells People. “He just seemed like the kind of guy whose life had lost direction. I guess he really resented Mark for having everything he didn’t.”
A trial for Leach will be scheduled in the coming weeks, but reports from inside the courtroom at Cousins’s trial paint the portrait of a troubled young man with more than enough motive. According to insiders, Leach had been obsessed with Cousins for months, and was looking for revenge after she turned down one of his advances. A Gatorade bottle retrieved from underground at the crime scene included DNA from both Leach and Forrester, and Leach’s computer search history revealed he had looked up a way to make Forrester’s death appear accidental.
“I noticed his behavior was erratic in the weeks leading up to Mark’s death,” says a former coworker of Leach’s, who wishes to remain unidentified. “Plus, he didn’t even take any time off after. He seemed unaffected by the whole thing.”
Cousins has been the subject of a media hailstorm since her release, and could not be reached for comment. Multiple sources claim that a bidding war is underway for her first televised interview, and there has already been talk of a tell-all book revealing her experiences being judged as guilty until proven innocent.
COMMENTS HAVE BEEN DISABLED
PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM
February 7, 2020
Accused teen’s memoir to be published after bidding war
By Harriet Best
Eighteen-year-old Tabitha Cousins, the girl behind a media frenzy that took the country by storm last year when she was accused of murdering her boyfriend on a hike, will publish a memoir after an eight-house auction among major publishing houses. Cousins will purportedly write the book herself, recounting her harrowing experience in the woods, and her treatment as a monster in the weeks leading up to her trial.
“It’s truly a fascinating story,” says Addison Lowe, senior editor at Hartley Books, the winning house, which has a celebrated history of best-selling celebrity memoirs. “Readers will finally be able to learn everything about Tabitha, a girl who has piqued the curiosity of a nation.”
Publication of the memoir is tentatively scheduled for next winter.